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Latest on EgyptAir Crash Investigation; Trump and Clinton Spar over Gun Rights. Aired Midnight-12:30a ET

Aired May 21, 2016 - 00:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


NATALIE ALLEN, CNN REPORTER: A multinational search for answers in the Mediterranean as debris and body parts from down Egypt air flight 804 are discovered. But the reason for the plane downing still a mystery.

Egyptians gather by the hundreds to grieve as the likelihood of finding survivors diminishes.

On the US presidential trail Trump and Clinton go to war over weapons. It's all ahead here on CNN newsroom. We're coming to you live from Atlanta. Thanks for joining us, I'm Natalie Allen.

Our top story, new clues emerging about Egypt air flight 804. Still no answers as to what caused the plane to crash into the Mediterranean. For the latest here's CNN's Ian Lee from Cairo.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

IAN LEE, CNN REPORTER: New evidence revealing what may have caused EgyptAir flight 804 two nosedive 37,000 feet into the Mediterranean Sea. Real-time data sent from the plane shows smoke was detected in one of the planes bathrooms at 2:26 AM. That's just one minute before air traffic controllers tried to reach the pilot, with no response.

At the same time smoke detected in the planes avionics bay, where critical electronics are stored. Finally, at 2:29 problems with the A320's flight controls. Greek civil aviation officials state to 2:29 is also when the plane disappeared from radar.

Still unclear whether the plane was brought down by mechanical failure or an active parent. But, a bomb remains the leading theory among US officials. Even though no one has claimed responsibility. This airplane and debris, passenger seats, luggage and body parts all found floating in the Mediterranean.

This satellite image taken over the search area hundred and 80 miles north of the Port city Alexandria, captures an oil slick more than a mile long. Possibly from the Egypt air plane.

Nearly 48 hours after the Airbus went missing there is still no sign of the planes black boxes. Flight data and cockpit voice recorders are crucial to the investigation.

Investigators are also looking into the cruise background. Pilot Mohamed Said Shoukair was 36 years old and had more than 6000 flying hours. Including 2000 and the controls of an Airbus 320. His co-pilot Mohamed Assem had nearly 2800 flying hours, the airline said. With no bodies recovered Egyptian gathered mosques across the country to offer prayers for the lost. The co-pilot's uncle broke down as he remembered 24-year-old who was about to get married.

YASSSAY ABEDEL GHAFFAR. CO-PILOT'S UNCLE: It's absolutely very kind person and you never see a guy in his age in his humanity and sense of humor. I would say he was the only one that was really drawing smiles on our faces.

LEE: Ian Lee, CNN,.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

ALLEN: The search for the aircraft is an international effort. Greece, France, the US and UK are all helping scour the water southeast of the Greek island of Karpathos. Our international diplomatic editor, Nic Robertson has that part of the story.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

NIC ROBERTSON, INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: The Greek Air Force have two of these aircraft apps over the sea. They have surveillance aircraft as well. The British military have a naval vessel in the area. The US Air Force is contributing several Orion NP3 surveillance aircraft to the recovery effort.

Already, some debris has been recovered. That is allowing the effort to focus, focus in on a precise area. Now, this area is just southeast of where the aircraft disappeared off the radar. It is a little north of where of that false debris field was found on Thursday.

Of course this is a concern, that debris spotted by the air has to be checked on the ground. That slows down the operation. But, that is part of the effort is underway.

The Greek Air Force here putting a lot of effort into this. They are also saying they are willing to use their airbase like this one here. Offering its allies to join the effort to help Egyptian authorities discover precisely where this EgyptAir aircraft went down.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

ALLEN: From Nick Robertson we learn about all the airpower and the ships in the water. That are trying to find his plane. Weather conditions have cooperated so far with the search and rescue, but that could change in the coming hours. Our meteorologist Derek Van Dam is following that angle for us, Derek.

DEREK VAN DAM, METEOROLOGIST: Well that develops Natalie, we have cloud coverage increase across the general search and rescue area. You can see we've highlighted that particular region. Really bullet pointed that area where the attention on how the moment.

The major storm is to the north, but you can see a cold front associated with it as well. The high pressure that has been bringing them the clear conditions and generally science skies of the course of the day will start to erode.

Then our cold front sweeping through. There's not a lot of precipitation associated. That's really focused to the north of the search area. What I'm concerned about is the winds picking up behind the cold front. That obviously has an impact on the ocean swells. We could see swells in the open ocean from Saturday right through to Monday, the start of the work week. Anywhere between 1 to 3 meters, which of course would in fact hinder the search and rescue operation going forward.

Here's our forecast wind gusts as you can see the cold front well to the West still. Here's Creeps and the Karpathos regions. The Eastern Mediterranean and the area where the last known radar contact with the plane is located with this red dot.

Look at the winds picking up behind her cold front from the Northwest. They could easily gust 50 to upwards of 60, even 70 kilometers per hour wind gusts. Even up to Monday and Tuesday. Impacting the sea conditions and obviously cloud cover starting to fill in across the area as well.

Is not only the weather that that were concerned about, but it's ocean currents that could potentially push the debris in all different directions. We got little eddies or little rotations in the ocean currents across this part of the Mediterranean that have already proven to take what appears to be an oil slick associated with this down airplane. About 40 km away from where that last known position was. That was where they had the last radar contact with the aircraft.

Now we can actually take you underneath the potion seafloor. At least the surface of the ocean. They can see that according to Google Earth map this is a relatively flat sea surface. In comparison to the NH 370 plane and they scoured the ocean floor so long across the Indian Ocean. That really was a very mountainous terrain. It made it very difficult for ships scouring the region to find the all important, all crucial black box that contained so much important information.

But, with this particular search and recovery operation they do have the advantage of a flat bed and that means that we will have an easier time finding that black box. Not to say that is going to be simple by any means. But the sea that across this area ranging between 2500 to 3500 meters.

Those black boxes emit a signal up to 6000 meters deep. That is also to their Vantage. One thing, Natalie, that we need to take into consideration. This is still a search and rescue operation.

That means water temperatures are also a factor for the potential, for any survivors. Currently waiting in the upper teens the lower 20s. That gives a healthy individual the potential to survive about 40 hours in this type of water.

ALLEN: All right Derek, thanks very much. We've been talking about where the flight ended. Let's go now to where began. Security at Paris is Charles de Gaulle airport, where the flight originated, is a major operation with a total of 5700 security agents. There is a lot to keep track of.

An airport security official tells CNN 86,000 gall employees have read a badge is which lets them access the secure areas in the airport. Since January of last year 85 employees have lost their security clearance for alleged radicalization, dealing with Islamic extremists. Or potential vulnerabilities. A further 600 batches weren't renewed or issued because of common crimes.

For more on all of this story let's turn to Dr. Alan Diehl. He's in Albuquerque New Mexico. A former NTSB investigator and the author of "air safety investigators using science to save lives one crash of the time".

Dr. Diehl nice to see you. Thank you for joining us. I want to talk to you first about this flight data from this automatic system indicating failures in the Air flight control system. Alerts relating to smoke in the laboratory and the avionics minutes for the crash. What does that tell you?

ALAN DIEHL, FORMER NTSB ACCIDENT INVESTIGATOR: It could be the key to the whole accident. At least the initial key until we recover the recorders, the black boxes. The fact that there was smoke in the laboratory followed one minute later by smoke in the avionics department. That could be one of two things. Of course Natalie only speculating, you realize that.

That could mean a Tara setting off a bomb in the laboratory and then having that explosive shockwave go into the avionics compartment. Which is below the pilot's flight deck. Or it could mean that the smoke detector in the laboratories which is quicker and better then the avionics smoke detector. Ergo it started an avionics bay. Of course the possibly flight control computers and other systems that we know about so far, the windows and so on. That is very intriguing.

We saw this was critical in the loss of that Air France over the South Atlantic several years ago. The airspeed tubes, the Peta tubes in that case failed and that was broadcast.

This is very, very interesting evidence.

ALLEN: I want to ask you too, the Greek air officials that tried to reach the plane and the pilots. They got no response. What does it tell you? What reason, other than some sort of major catastrophe, would keep pilots from saying Mayday are indicating a problem?

DIEHL: We all, Natalie, we always say aviate, you've heard this before, aviate and communicate. In fact, Natalie, have an airline pilot's license, never flown for the airlines. Never flown and Airbus.

What pilots do if there is an ongoing emergency light a smoke alert. It would be to try and troubleshoot this. We seen this before many many times. A Swiss air aircraft in the 90s over the Atlantic had that problem. It was several minutes before they keep their mic and issued an emergency call.

Pilots troubleshoot. They know that probably the controllers aren't going to be up to help them. At that point they don't know if they need any rescue assets. They're trying to find out is this a real alarm. How bad is that smoke in the lavatory or the avionics compartment. I think it's very consistent with how pilots actually behave.

I happen to also be a aviation psychologist Natalie. We see this over and over again where they troubleshoot before they communicate anything.

ALLEN: Greek officials were tracking a plane when it made the sudden moved to the left and to the right before it descended. Where they also be able to know how far the plane traveled horizontally? How many miles before it went down?

DIEHL: it sounds like it basically made a 90 degree left turn and then a sudden right turn. Of course when you're having emergency you want to get off the air ways. The initial 90 degree turn is consistent with how an airline pilot would behave if he thought he had an emergency. I don't know the exact distance, I don't know if anyone has released the information. The horizontal distance.

It seems like the aircraft spiraled down the 360 degree turn. Maybe they were thinking that the island they just passed as the closest airport. On the Airbus and on the big Boeings, the new Boeings, there's actually a display that shows you where the nearest suitable airport is. It may have been behind them.

Again, speculation here Natalie. That may have been what they were doing. Thinking about diverting back towards the Greek island there, that they had overflown shortly before the emergency. So many things we don't know, Natalie. I'm only speculating. I know you realize that, but we have to be a little careful here.

ALLEN: Yes, absolutely, absolutely. As we always do in the initial stages of an investigation of this magnitude. The plane was on the ground in Paris just an hour and a half, it had come from other areas of Africa. When we hear x-rays talk about doing security sweeps of an airplane. Can they do that in a relatively short amount of time? How thorough do we know the suites might be?

DIEHL: Natalie, time is money. They know the all airlines want to turn those airplanes around as they say. And minimize the time on the ground. If you have an adequate security staff, 90 minutes should be enough.

Again, we saw this in Metro jet where somehow they got a soda can bomb aboard the Russian aircraft went down on the Sinai last year or so. Obviously, things can slip through.

90 minutes is not - - it's an adequate time. I don't think that this suggests Clinton is holding onto a slightly that they - - Egypt Air authorities were - - or the French airport authorities weren't being thorough. I think that's pretty standard. As a matter of fact that might be a little longer can we see here in the states. Natalie.

ALLEN: We thank you for helping us trying to understand this disaster. We will hopefully talk with you again when we learn more. Thank you Alan Diehl for us.

DIEHL: Thank you Natalie.

ALLEN: With so many urgent questions about what caused the crash, forensic teams hope they'll be able to provide answers. We'll have a story relating to that coming up here.

Also, on another topic, Donald Trump goes after Hillary Clinton on gun rights. What he told a powerful gun lobbying group about her positions, or what he claims were her positions. We'll have that next as well.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ALLEN: Welcome back. We turn to Washington, where the Secret Service shot a gunman near the White House on Friday. The service says the man was told to drop his gun. He approached a checkpoint, but he didn't. He was taken into custody and move to the hospital after he was shot. The president wasn't home but the vice president was secured in the White House complex during the incident.

In the race for the White House presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump received a key endorsement Friday from the NRA. The National Rifle Association, a powerful gun lobbying group.

He took the opportunity to go on the attack against rival Hillary Clinton on gun rights. The two are increasingly going after each other and they focus on the general election. Here's our Jim Acosta from the campaign trail.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

JIM ACOSTA, CNN REPORTER: Picking up the endorsement of the nation's top gun lobby Donald Trump paid tribute to the NRA. Then within seconds fired off the top lines of attack and Hillary Clinton.

DONALD TRUMP, (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE & CEO, TRUMP ORGANIZATION: You know I call a crook in Hillary. She wants to abolish the second amendment. Were not going to let that happen.

ACOSTA: Trump, who _once supported assault weapon ban backs a broad expansion of gun rights. Adding that last year's terrorist carnage in San Bernardino, California and Paris would have been avoided has some of the victims been armed with weapons of their own.

TRUMP: I you would've had guns the other side - - it might not have happened.

ACOSTA: The presumptive GOP nominee slammed Clinton as unqualified to be president. Tying the EgyptAir disaster to her record on terrorism and Secretary of State.

TRUMP: I've been looking at airplane getting blown up in the air. Lots of bad things happening. Bernie Sanders, who I'm sure you all love, he did say one thing that was very interesting. He said that Hillary Clinton is unqualified to be the president of the United States. He said she suffers from bad judgment, that she does.

ACOSTA: Even though the investigators have still not publicly concluded that EgyptAir jet was targeted by terrorists. Trump went as far as to warrant what would happen if more planes are taken out.

TRUMP: You're going to have a depression worldwide the likes of which you've never seen. Because nobody is going to travel. There will be no anything.

HILLARY CLINTON, (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Chris it does appear that it was an act of terrorism. Exactly how, of course the investigation will have to determine.

ACOSTA: Speculating on the apparent downing of the EgyptAir jet. Clinton is hitting right back at Trump.

CLINTON: I know how hard this job is. I know we need steadiness as well as strength and smarts and it. I have concluded that he is not qualified to be president of the United States.

ACOSTA: The results? A new poll suggests that Clinton is holding onto slightly over trunk. They are both deeply unpopular. More than half of those surveyed in the New York Times CBS news poll say, they have unfavorable views of Trump and Clinton. Though 70% as a trump lacks the right temperament to be president. An area where she performs better.

Trump is also spending much of his times shoring up his support among conservatives. Bragging how many guns his sons on.

TRUMP: They have so many rifles and so many guns and sometimes even I get a little bit concerned. They say that a lot.

ACOSTA: Pointing to Clinton's comments on gun control.

CLINTON: Here again the Supreme Court is wrong on the Second Amendment. And I'm going to make that case every chance I get.

TRUMP: Gun free zones. Getting rid of gun free zones, okay. I can tell you.

ACOSTA: Trump is also taking a victory lap after his big wins in the primaries. Urging Republicans to rally behind him. Even working in a few double stuffed jabs at his old rival Chris Christie.

TRUMP: I'm not eating Oreos anymore. You know that. Neither is Chris. You're not eating Oreos anymore. No Oreos for either of us. Chris. Don't feel bad. For either of us.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

ALLEN: While Hillary Clinton still leads the Democratic race rival Bernie Sanders is not backing down. He's taken some wins from Clinton as he prepares to stay in all the way to the party's national convention in July. Sandy says the super delegates system in place rigged the nomination for an establishment candidate. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BERNIE SANDERS,PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: over 400 of these super- delegates indicated their support for Secretary Clinton before anyone else within the race in other words the establishment determines who the anointed candidate will be before the first voters got into the process.

I think that that is a very very bad idea. it's an idea that we can change at the convention.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ALLEN: Next, here on CNN newsroom. Forensic labs are equipped to unravel baffling cases. Will show them how they'll approach the mysterious EgyptAir crash.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ALLEN: As we mentioned at the top of this newscast, new details are coming out about the final moments of the EgyptAir flight 804. Flight data obtained by CNN indicated smoke alerts went off near the cockpit just before the aircraft went down in the Mediterranean.

Aviation experts cautioned that the does not necessarily mean there was a fire on the plane. Debris from the aircraft and some human remains have been found at sea. The flight data and cockpit voice recorders are still missing.

Forensics will be key to figuring out what happened to the flight. Investigators hope to retrieve enough debris from the plane to piece together what went wrong. The circumstances of the crash are sure to complicate an already difficult job. Our Kyung Lah paid a visit to the forensics lab to learn how the tackle it.

KYUNG LAH, CNN REPORTER: It's in the wreckage of EgyptAir flight 804, that investigators will inspect for evidence of a possible explosive device.

THOMAS ANTHONY, USC AVIATION SAFTEY AND SECURITY DIRECTOR: If we compare the sides, there is a difference a very distinct difference.

Walking us through this bomb research lab, former FAA aviation security manager Thomas Anthony says, investigators look for telltale marks of each type of bond.

ANTHONY: C4 is very adaptable for the purpose of the terrace. Because they can be formed into shapes

LAH: C4 doesn't burn.

ANTHONY: It does not burn. It releases a high temperature, a high- pressure gas is there shocks. Look at the edges here the edges and the black powder are very very different. They have this sort of like almost coral like look to them. This is napalm. Look at all the residue of the napalm that was left

behind. That's something that is indicative and characteristic of the napalm.

LAH: Are there numbers of explosives?

ANTHONY: There are dozens of types of explosives. In view of the terrorist - - a terrorist is likely to follow up a success with a similar form of attack.

LAH: Last October Metro jet flight 9268 crashed on the Sinai peninsula, killing all 224 aboard. ISIS claimed in a propaganda magazine that they brought it down using explosive material hidden in a soda can. A picture shows wires and a detonator with an on and off switch. CNN cannot independently verify the authenticity of the photo.

As relatives of the passengers wait through the agonizing search and recovery. The victim's bodies will also hold forensic clues. If it was an explosive the direction of the blast and what type.

This recovery will be underwater like the AirAsia flight 8501 disaster in December 2014. Essentially eroding some of the evidence, but not all of it. A lab can still detect evidence underwater even on melted steel. Anthony says is critical to have forensics proof in an aviation investigation. But what's just as important, the investigation beyond the wreckage.

ANTHONY: not what happened only but how it happened so that vulnerability can be identified and fixed.

LAH: Kyung Lah, CNN Los Angeles.

ALLEN: That is CNN newsroom. Will continue to bring you updates on our lead stories after this.

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